Bonds of Family
by Padfoots heir
Summary: What if Voldemort wanted to keep James alive? What if Sirius had a family to think about before he chased after Peter? Follow whats left of the Marauders as they try to raise their children, and prepare them for the war that is coming.
1. Proluge

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, or anything in the Harry Potter universe that is not of my own creation. **

**AN Note: So this is my first ff after spending years reading them. I have the whole thing planned out and I am writing the next chapter. Please be gentle with any criticism.**

Prologue

Lord Voldemort looked around in disgust, '_filthy muggles running around in costumes, if only they knew the true meaning of All Hallows Eve,' _ he thought to himself as he passed throngs of children. No matter how much he despised the muggles, they would not be ruining his mood tonight, because tonight he would finally crush the light sides hope by destroying its most prominent family, the Potters. The Potters have defied him for too long, which was very disappointing, the Potters were a very valuable, both formidable in magic, and as much as he hated to admit it stronger than most of his Death Eaters. He had offered them to join him three times and each time they have denied him.

After walking down a country lane away from the main town itself, he got his first glimpse of the house that he should not have been able to see. '_Trusting fools,' _ he thought as he looked through the window as a James Potter was shooting clouds of colored smoke out of his wand to the delight of a little boy. Then a red headed Lily Potter came in and picked up the toddler and headed off to the left, the man followed leaving his wand on the couch, '_idiot, now is as good as time as any,' _Voldemort sneered seconds before he blew the front door down.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off -" , James Potter yelled as he turned towards the front door.

"Really without a wand," Voldemort mocked as a look of realization dawned on James' face.

"You would kill me without a wand? Where is the Honor in….."

Voldemort cut him off with a quick "_Crucio"._ Walking over to him while he was withering on the floor in agony, he crouched down and leaned over him " what is it with you Gryffindors and honor? " he asked as he cut off the spell leaving James on the floor gasping for air. "_Incarcerous," _tying James up.

"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?" James asked with as much strength as he could muster hoping that Lily had time to get Harry out to safety.

"Kill you? Why would I do that you are way more valuable alive then dead. You see this here?" Voldermort asked as he pulled out a small but very sharp traditional dagger of some sort, "this dagger here is enchanted and laced with the Draught of Living Dead, you see I could kill you, but I want you to be my secret weapon, you with everyone thinking you're dead along with your wife and child, "

"Not bloody likely, they are well away from here by now", James replied trying to convince himself more than anything.

"You think I am foolish enough to allow that? A simple Anti-Apparition charm fixes that."

"LILY MAKE A POR….."

"_SILENCIO!_ Now where was I, yes draught of the living dead. You see when I kill your family the wizarding world will be mine for the taking, but I am not foolish to believe that the light side will not try and revolt against me. That is where you come in you see, I will revive you and you and you will be their white knight returning from the grave to save them, but you will join me, against your will of course, and whatever hope the light will have at that time will be crushed and I will finally be the leader of the wizarding world." As he finished he drove the dagger deep in to his thigh, after pulling it out he healed the surface of the wound so no one would notice it and effectively sealing in the Draught of the Living Dead.

Walking up the stairs he sneered at the pictures of the happy family, before turning into the last door on the left.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"  
"Stand aside you silly girl … stand aside now." '_I am really regretting telling Severus that I would spare her._  
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead - "  
"Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy… "

'_Well I tried,'_ "_AVADA KEDAVRA". _With that Lily Potter was dead and the infant was screaming for his mother. Walking over to the crib he got his first real look at the child who was prophesized to be his end. He didn't seem like much, not that he had much experience with children, but the way the child stared up at him with the Avada Kedavra green eyes, unnerved him. So he decided to end this as quickly as possible, "_AVADA KEDAVRA". _Time seemed to slow down as he watched the curse sail towards the boy when the curse stopped just above his forehead and seemed to ball up and fly back towards him at three times the normal speed. He was unable to act fast enough as the spell hit him in the chest and he felt excruciating pain. The feeling of his soul vacating his body as it was destroyed, was something he never thought he would feel. Feeling disoriented he fled as the house around him went up in flames, vowing to himself that he would destroy Harry Potter.

~~~~Sirius' POV~~~

The feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach was growing at an alarming rate as he raced towards James and Lily's house. He just checked in on Peter when he discovered his flat completely deserted with no signs of struggle, it just didn't feel right. Just as Godric's Hallow was coming into view he could smell the smoke before he saw the glow of the fire and gave his motorcycle everything it had to get there faster. '_Peter I will kill you for what you have done",_ kept running through his mind.

He was off his motorcycle and running towards the house before it even touched the ground. The first thing he saw when he ran though the door less entrance dropped him to his knees, and caused a heart wrenching sob to escape him. His best friend, his brother in all but blood was lying on the floor dead, staring up to the ceiling. His world crashed down around him, everything they had been through together now meant nothing, and this was not supposed to happen. Things were supposed to be different, they were going to take the ministry by storm as the two best aurors since Moody, their kids were supposed to be Marauder's together, life was supposed care free and easy for them just as it had been when they were in school. A loud wail from upstairs shook him from his ravine; he jumped to his feet and rushed upstairs.

The smoke in Harrys' nursery was awful; he let out another sob when he saw Lily's body lying haphazardly next to the crib. Quickly he grabbed Harry out of the crib and levitated Lily's body down stairs and laid her next to James.

"ello", a voice came from outside "Sirius?"

'_Shit, Hagrid. They are going to think I betrayed them; I got to get my family and Harry out of here until I can straighten this out. They are all going to be out for my head, all thanks to Peter. I should go after him and kill him. No! I can't'_ A more rational part of his brain took over, one that becomes after having a family and children of your own. '_I need to get my family to Uncle Alphards Island until I can get all of this settled.'_

"Sirius, do ye h've Harry" Hagrid asked when he spotted Sirius standing over James and Lilys' bodies.

"Yes, Hagrid, he is fine except for this scar on his forehead." Sirius explained just realizing after giving Harry a once over.

"I ave to take Harry, Dumbledore's orders', he is goin' to his relatives."

'_I know I can't take Hagrid out with his giant blood, I am just going to have to get out of here.' _"Listen Hagrid, Harry is my Godson, he is staying with me. Tell Dumbledore to look for Peter and check his arm, I did not betray them Hagrid", with that he disappeared.

**AN. What do you think? Once again please be gentle. **


	2. Exodus and Failed Plans

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything in his universe.**

**AN: First I want to thank you guys for your reviews, as well as the follows and Favorites. I want to give you my apologies if the prologue was a little confusing. No Sirius did not grab James' body, because he was too emotionally unstable at the thought of his best friend dead on the floor. Also for Voldemorts plan, it will not matter, I was using it to set up my plans for James return. I want to warn everyone, that Dumbledore will be manipulative in this, and there will be some bashing as well. I also want to say sorry for taking a little while to post this, and that it is shorter then I wanted but , my wife is 33 weeks pregnant so we have been pretty busy with last minute preparations. Last but very not the least I want to thank marauderette-47 for your advice and the kind words. **

Chapter One: Exodus and Failed Plans

Skylar liked to think that she was a brave person; she was in Gryffindor after all! For the last week and a half she had been worried more than she could ever remember being in all of her life. The focal point of her worry, her husband and father of her son, Sirius Black, was still not home and it was almost midnight on All Hallows Eve. The reason she was worried more than usual in the past week, is because Sirius decided to be the Potters decoy attracting all of the attention from the Dark Lord. It's not that she did not like the Potters, actually the complete opposite, she just worried for Sirius. Since the '_Prophecy'_ had come out (which she personally didn't believe in) and the Potter's went into hiding, Sirius had been working nonstop trying to singlehandedly destroy the Dark lord. Sometimes Sirius would not come home at all following up on some lead involving Death Eater activity, and when he was home; he was locked away in his office studying reports and maps. The only time he came out was to check on Leo, and to promise me that as soon as this was over he would quit his job as an auror and spend every waking moment with her.

She would not hold his determination to end this war against him though, James Potter was his brother in every way possible other then blood, and even then they were cousins. James mother Dorea was a Black before she was a Potter. Another, and more selfish reason, was that she did not want her son and future children growing up in the fear caused by the Dark Lord. A loud crack from the front yard snapped her out of thought, rushing to the window she saw Sirius running towards the front door with something in his arms.

Opening the front door for him so that he didn't run through it, because he didn't look like he was slowing down, she realized what, no who he was holding, she felt like she had be hit by a muggle truck. If the scar on little Harrys head and the tears running down Sirius' face was anything to go by, the worst had happened. "Sirius, what happened?" She asked her own tears starting to fall.

"James and Lily are dead, and Voldemort was nowhere to be seen, only what appeared to be his robes on the floor of Harry's nursery, and the scar on Harry's forehead." He said panting. "You need to get Leo ready we are leaving for my uncle Alphard's island in the South Atlantic, in an hour."

"What? Why Sirius? If Voldemort is gone we have nothing to hide from anymore?" She asked him, not understanding why he would want to take such drastic measures.

"Because Skylar, everyone is going to think that I betrayed James and Lily. No one knows that we switched to Peter. Even though Dumbledore was the one that suggested using Peter, I told him to get bent, that I would not allow anyone to become the secret keeper. I was trying to fool everyone even Dumbledore, and unfortunately it worked. The whole wizarding world will be after my head and to try and take Harry away from us until I have proof."

"Fine, I will go get Leo and things he can't live without," she stated, not happy about it at all.

An hour later saw Skylar and Sirius both holding a sleepy child and a trunk with all of their necessities, ready for departure from England, "_PORTUS,"_ Sirius said pointing his wand at the stuffed wolf. After the wolf glowed blue for a few seconds he extending it out for his wife to grab onto. Seconds after she grabbed onto the wolf the four of them disappeared, uncertain when they would every return to England.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office just getting back from the Potter residence, searching for Harry Potter. He was half a bottle of firewhiskey deep, trying to figure out where things had gone wrong. Things had all been going to plan up until his discussion with Sirius Black almost two weeks ago, where he told him the leader of the light to get bent. It took most of the control he had not to curse the man straight away. He was hoping to persuade him to let Peter be the secret keeper, as he had known for almost a year that he was the trader within the Order. Albus Dumbledore was many things but dumb was not among them, surely Tom knew that I would see through Peters weak mental shields. Either way he let it go, it would help him in the long run to get rid of the Potters, and he would never give him enough information to actually hurt his end game.

After the conversation with Black, Albus went back to planning mode, trying to figure out how to get rid of the Potters and making them martyrs. After Tom finished off the Potters, he would think that he is invincible thanks to the _'prophecy'_ he believes in. Making him foolish enough to face me in open battle in which I would win. In the eyes of the wizarding world I would come in to save the day once again. Of course he could always use the Longbottom boy as a backup, the prophecy he fabricated could mean either of the two boys. After all, when you are a master at manipulation you never left yourself only on option. The only problem was that he wanted, no needed it to be the Potter boy. It has long been rumored that the Potters were direct descendants of Godric Gryffindor himself, of course he had researched their line extensively, but it yielded to no firm results. He even tried to weasel it out of James, but if he knew the truth he was not telling, and his mental shields were as good as his if not better.

If the Potters were the heirs of Gryffindor, which he believed they were, his plan would get rid of the last two heirs from the founders. With both of those families gone there would be no one with enough political power to stop him from doing whatever he wanted to do.

_FLASHBACK_

_After trying to find another course of action for three days after his conversation with Black, a very distressed Severus Snape entered his office. Instead of the normal sneer on his face, his eyes were blood shot and puffy, Dumbledore had to stop the look of disgust from crossing his face at the thought of Snape crying. Putting on his patented grandfather façade, he asked, "Severus my boy, what can I do for you?"_

"_He found them Dumbledore! He is going to attack them on Halloween; I thought you said they were going into hiding and using the Fedils? I begged him to save Lily, but I doubt that he will, she is just a filthy mudblood to him."_

_Albus could hardly suppress his glee at the wonderful news, 'Black you fool, you took my bait anyways. Now all I have to do is wait, and make Severus forget that he ever knew Tom had chose the Potters' "I assure you Severus that they are very much safe, and that no harm will come to your precious Lily."_

"_How can you be sure, he knows where they are hiding Dumbledore, no one can stop the Dark Lord once he decides to kill them." Severus all but shouted._

"_I am sure Severus," He said with a little edge to his voice, angry at being questions. "As I am the Potters Secret Keeper, and I assure you that I did not go to Voldemort with this information. I assume that were he thinks is where they are hiding is false and is just the product of a Death Eater trying to gain favor."_

_A look of relief washed over Severus' face, "Oh, well then I will take my leave." Severus said standing up and feeling foolish. Just as he was about to open the door Dumbledore called out, "Oh, and Severus." Turning around he saw Dumbledore standing up with his wand pointed at his face, and before he could react Dumbledore cast an Obliviate. A few seconds later Severus blinked a few times, "Where was I?" he asked Dumbledore._

"_You were just leaving, after telling me you would have your potions mastery by the end of this school year. Really Severus, you should take some time off, being stuck in a dungeon with all of the fumes from your potions all day can really get to your head." Dumbledore lied easily._

"_Yes sir, maybe I will do that. Good day Albus." Severus said turning and walking out of the office, with his robes billowing behind him._

After that Dumbledore just waited until Halloween. All day on Halloween Albus waited in his office staring at one of his silver instruments on his desk. The one that would alert him when the wards that surrounded the Potters house went down. Finally that night it started emitting red smoke, and he knew Tom was making his move. Summoning Hagrid, he explained in a worried voice how the Potters were attacked, and sent him to the Potters to look for survivors, with instructions on how to treat each of the possible outcomes.

When Hagrid didn't return within the hour, he started to get frustrated, it should not have taking this long for him to return with news. Hagrid finally returned after another hour, and his news was not good news. After being told that Black left with the boy, he flooed to Hogs Head, then apparated without saying a word to his brother, to Blacks home.

Realizing that the Blacks were long gone, he blew apart of the wall next to him in his anger. Deciding to go to Godric's Hollow himself, he Disapparated.

Arriving at the scene, he saw a few aurors in blue robes and cursed under his breath. "How were you alerted of this?" He asked the first man he saw.

"We got an anonymous tip sir." He stated

"Where are the bodies?" he asked wanting to see for himself, to ensure that they were really dead.

"When we arrived on the scene, both of the adult Potters where laying dead next to each other , we assume that they were both hit with the killing curse."

"What do you mean, you assume that they were hit with the killing curse, did you not check," Albus asked barely keeping his voice steady in his rage.

"Well sir, when we came in we felt for a pulse and didn't find any, so we proceed up the stairs to search for the child. After searching the upstairs and only finding a singed robe in the middle of the nursery, we came back down stairs. We arrived back down to the living room, just in time to see…." The auror trailed off looking terrified, just noticing how close Dumbledore was to him.

"What did you see?" Dumbledore asked getting nervous.

"Two house elves disappear with the bodies." The auror finished sheepishly.

"Shit"


End file.
